The Fortress
"The Fortress" is the seventy-second episode of Robotech TV series and the twelfth episode of the third season. Summary Scott Bernard and his band of Robotech fighters find their path to Reflex Point blocked by an Invid Fortress Plot Scott Bernard and his party find that their route to Invid Reflex Point is blocked by a former Robotech outpost which is now turned into an Invid Fortress. The party decides to try the only possible option: Taking out the fortress! Lancer suggests 6:30 AM for the attack, when the bulk of Invid forces are outside the fortress on their duties. Rand suggests infiltrating the fortress ahead of the main party using skis, which emit no protoculture for Invid to detect. Since Rook Bartley refuses to accompany him, Annie LaBelle tags along — a questionable decision. Rand and Annie set out to the Invid Fortress, first approaching it on skis and then climbing to it with rope. Trice they evade detection by Invid patrol, once nearly having one of their bombs exploded. As they wander into the creepy enemy fortress, they discover it to have a mecha production facility that employs human slaves. They observe an Invid being inserted into an Invid Trooper mecha. They also stumble upon an inert brain-like creature which seems to control the facility. Having confirmed their suspicion with the help of a diversionary maneuver executed by Rook, Annie plants the creature a time bomb a 1 minute timer. However, upon escaping the explosion radius, Annie is tripped and attracts the attention of the present Invid Soldiers. The bomb explodes before the Invid Soldiers could capture Rand and Annie, disintegrating the brain-like creature. The Invid brain however, although disintegrated, attacks en masse, trying to suffocate Rand and Annie by covering them. At the exact moment of explosion, Ariel (called "Marlene" by the party,) who seems to have a headache every time Invid makes a major movement, has yet another attack. She says someone is screaming at her, grasping hard at her own head. The explosion however, as well as activation of Rand's distress beacon, signals the party to attack. Scott, Rook and Lancer attack with their Veritech fighters and succeed in breaking through the Invid and dig Rand and Annie out of the engulfing biomass. Subsequent to survival, Rand destroys the Invid Incubation chamber, instigating yet another headache in Ariel. In the mean time however, the Invid forces which were outside on duty, return. Scott engages them in battle while the rest of the party escape through the back gate. In doing so, he is forced to retreat into the fortress core. While nearly overwhelmed, Scott fires a salvo of missiles into the fortress Reflex Furnace, thus overloading it, causing the entire fortress to explode. The main party manages to barely escape through back door. Scott, however, finds his way blocked by a six-meter-thick barrier but he also manages to miraculously breach through just when the fortress blows up. After crossing the mountain, Rook and Annie go for swimming and invite Ariel to join in. She reacts positively, showing signs of both improvements as well as lack of knowledge of human culture. Background information "The Fortress" was based on the original Japanese episode of Genesis Climber MOSPEADA entitled "Yōsai Toppa Bugi" (Meaning "Fortress Breakthrough Boogie" in English) that was aired 18 December, 1983 in Japan. Cast * Greg Snegoff as Scott Bernard * Frank Catalano as Rand * Susie London as Rook Bartley * Emilie Colleen de Azevedo Brown as Annie LaBelle * Cam Clarke as Lance Belmont * Richard Epcar as Lunk * Melanie MacQueen as Ariel * J. Jay Smith as the Narrator External links * * 11 72